The Faniston Diaries

I look back at my foster parents one more time before I hand the flight attendant my boarding pass. It's so intimidating flying alone, let alone for the first time. She looks down and studies the code along the pass before looking up to say "welcome aboard miss", and gesturing for me to board the plane. I grip my carryon and trudge down the long hallway leading to the plane's entrance way. I reach the entrance of the plane only to be greeted by two more flight attendees who take notice of my unaccompanied minors boarding pass and continue to show me to my seat in business class. I store my baggage in the overhead compartment and sit down for the first time in and hour. I close my eyes and take a deep breath in through my nose, and slowly release. I pull out my phone from my pocket and go on twitter. I scroll through my newsfeed and say goodbye to all my faniston friends on twitter before my departure. I lock my phone and lean forward to put it in my back pocket only to be stopped. I am nudged on my shoulder by an older woman in uniform. I look up to the flight attendant in curiosity. Did I do something wrong? My bags are in the right spot, I think. She smiles at me and leans in closer. "Good afternoon miss, my name is Donna" she says in a sugar coated voice, as if I'm a baby or something, "we have open seats in first class, and regulations are they be filled by unaccompanied minors before any other passengers. Would you care to take the upgrade?". I look at her in utter excitement and reply with a giddy "um you're kidding right?! yes please!" She smiles and takes my carryon from the above storage and leads me down the narrow isle towards the front of the huge plane. I smile goodbye to my fellow jealous business class passengers and continue to merrily glide down the long walkway of the huge plane after the woman. We are in the front of the plane now. She pulls back a cloth curtain to reveal the secluded first class coach seat section of the jet. I stop in my tracks. Holy shit! This thing is epic. There are ten huge leather seats (practically thrones) in the intimately quiet room. No other passengers are in here except for me. She smiles amused at my expression and takes my luggage to a small closet and gestures for me to sit in the monster of a seat. "Miss, would you care for any refreshments?" She asks. I look at her with a devilish grin and reply with "a glass of champagne please". She laughs and exits the room into a personal first class kitchen. I swing my feet in excitement as I look around the compartment in utter awe. Suddenly, there is a voice over the income. It's the pilot. "Ladies and gentlemen, this is your pilot speaking. I'm afraid our takeoff will be delayed another 45 minutes due to some severe air traffic. Please bear with us, thank you". I hear some groans from passengers in the back of the plane. I could care less, I'm in heaven. I look up from my aloof self to hear the plane door near the cockpit, out of my sight, being opened by an attendant. We are still sitting at the airport terminal so I'm guessing another passenger got lucky and was able to catch the flight. I take my phone out of my pocket and go on twitter once again and explain to my fellow fanistons about the delay. "How great to be flying with you yet again, let me take your coat for you Ms. Aniston" I hear my flight attendant say from down the hall to the unseen figure who has just boarded the plane. I turn stark white. I freeze. I listen. "Thank you so much Donna, it's great to see you!" the mysterious new passenger replies. This however, was absolutely no mystery to me. I know that voice better than my own mother's. My spine shivers and suddenly I'm deathly cold. I still have not moved from my frozen position. I have never been so utterly terrified in my entire life. "Let me show you to your seat dear" Donna says. I hear footsteps coming towards the first class compartment. The sound of the two women's shuffling footsteps are gaining more and more volume until they are directly behind the curtain right in front of my seat. I slowly look up. I have been holding my breath unconsciously now for around two minutes. My adrenaline is racing. The curtain is drawn to reveal Donna who then steps aside to reveal a surreal figure to my eyes. This has got to be a sick twisted joke of some sort. Standing in front of me is Jennifer Aniston. My Jen in standing in front of me. The Jen I have always dreamed of meeting. The Jen I have fangirled over countless times on twitter with my fellow Fanistons. My Jen, in the flesh, stood in front of me. I gawked at her from head to toe. I immediately recognized every article of clothing she had on. She was wearing her navy blue cardigan with the gold buttons, her favorite boyfriend jeans with the little rips along the pant legs, her white tennis shoes, ray bans, and a large gray scarf encircling her neck leaving just enough room for her cute cropped hair to peak out over. Donna placed a hand on my shoulder and cruelly pulled me back into reality. "This is Alex" she explained to Jen "she is flying alone for the first time!". I nodded my head like a dumbass because at this point that was something to be proud of considering I had lost the ability to form words audible to the human ear. Jen pulls off her glasses to reveal her fresh, pristine face with a glowing smile. Her crystal eyes pierce mine and my eyes begin to water. "Hi honey" she says. I have heard her say that a million times before. I don't know why, but the second she actually says those words directed personally towards me, they mean something completely different. I've been waiting for this moment for God knows how long. My eyes begin to well up and I can't hold it in, I burst into tears. Jen is shocked. She squats down in front of me and places her warm hands on my knees. I don't know what else to do with myself, so I wipe my tears, and hug her. "Oh honey oh it's okay!" She says in a loving, consoling, and elated way. I separate from her and use my words. "I love you so much" I say as the tears roll down my cheeks. She smiles right back to me, wipes my cheek with her scarf, and says "honey I love you too!" She gives a cute chuckle. "I'll leave you two alone" Donna says, and she exits behind the staff curtain. Jen takes off her scarf and sits in the seat next to me. I explain how I am a huge fan of hers, and that I'm not the only one. I tell her that we call ourselves Fanistons. She giggles to herself and is completely immersed in everything I'm saying. I can tell that she really cares about all of us. She asks if she can take my phone and talk to some of the Fanistons on twitter. "How will they know it's really you talking to them and not me pretending to be you?" I ask her. She makes a cute thinking face and comes up with an idea. "We can take a selfie together and post it so they know you are with me. Then I can say that I am tweeting and they will know you aren't bullshitting them!" She says. "Great idea!" I say as I open up the camera app and set it to the front lens to take a selfie picture. "What funny face should we make?" I ask her. "Hmm" she says "let's go all basic white girl on this mother and do the duck face". I die laughing. "Okay Jen, whatever haha" I raise my phone up in front of us and we put out faces together, cheek to cheek, and make over exaggerated duck faces. I take the picture. "Aw that's adorable! Could you send that to me?" She says. "Um sure!" I reply "but how should I send it to you?". She grabs my phone and enters her phone number into it before I can even finish asking. "Here" she says "that's my number. By the way, feel free to call or text me whenever you want hun" she says. I always knew she was down to earth, but this is just crazy. I feel like I'm talking to one of my best friends. I look back down at my phone, save her number in my contacts, and continue with posting the selfie on twitter with the caption "you'll never guess who my new flying buddy is...". Within 2 minutes the post got 50 retweets. My phone was exploding. I explained that Jen was now in control of my twitter and I handed her my phone. She began tweeting each individual faniston back. After a half hour or so, she said goodbye to everyone, left twitter, and handed me back my phone. "You are going to be very popular now" she said with a cute smile. "You have no idea" I replied. "I guess this means I should really get a twitter then huh?" She exclaimed. "Nobody is forcing you to, but I'm sure we would absolutely love it" I say. "Maybe sometime soon" she says in what seemed to be a very hopeful expression. "Ugh I gotta go pee before we takeoff!" She says in a cutesy little voice. She gets up from her seat and walks to the compact bathroom across the first class cabin. I sit back in my seat and take in what I've been experiencing in the past half hour. I'm on a plane with Jennifer Aniston. I breathe. This is insane. Then it hits me, we haven't even taken off yet. This is just the beginning.